Baby Elephant Hides Behind Pole After Caught Eating Sugarcane
- Thomas Nelson
- December 20, 2020
- Animals
- 0 Comments
Kids really are the same, no matter what species you belong to. I can recall a time or two I tried pulling a fast one as a kid but didn’t have the skill, tact, or subtlety necessary to succeed in my mission. The antics of one baby elephant in northern Thailand has had folks on social media leaving an awful lot of heart reacts.
On November 15th, an image was shared to Facebook depicting a young elephant standing still behind an electrical pole after it was discovered munching on some sugar cane being grown. The Facebook user commented (originally in Thai) “Keep calm. Officers will see. Let’s continue eating sugarcane.”
The post has amassed 3,300 reactions, 404 comments, and 1,300 shares.
The funny post reflects a deep appreciation that many Thai people have for elephants. Many consider them to be noble creatures. There are currently between 3,000 and 4,000 elephants living in Thailand – a far cry from the 100,000 elephants that roamed the country in the 1800s.
Baby elephants love sugarcane
Elephants young and old have a love of sugarcane. They’ve been known to cause damage to sugarcane farms in order to get at one of their favorite treats. This puts elephants at odds with some farmers. This leads to the unfortunate issue of human-elephant conflict.
In Indonesia’s largest palm oil producing province, Riau, elephants cause $105 million (USD) in damage to plantations and kill around 100 people each year. Elephants are sometimes targeted in retaliatory killings. Habitat loss and human-elephant conflicts are two of the greatest threats to Asian elephant populations.
Some farmers have taken to growing crops near the edges of their fields that deter elephants. Chili and tobacco are two crops for which elephants have no fondness.
Fortunately in this case, the sneaky baby elephant in question was very good at hiding and caused no problems for anyone.
Read next: The world’s loneliest elephant made a friend
